130 ANIMALS OF THE PAST the number of eggs of the great auk is a fixed quantity, while no one knows how many more of ^pyornis remain to he discovered in the swamps of Madagascar. No specimens of the gigantic Patagonian birds are now in this country, but a fine example of one of the smaller forms, Pelycornis, including the only breast¬ bone yet found, is in the Museum of Princeton University. The only skeleton of Diatryma is in the American Museum of Natural History. The largest known tibia of a Moa, the longest bird-bone known, is in the collection of the Canterbury Museum, Christchurch, New Zealand; it is 3 feet 3 inches long. This, however, is ex¬ ceptional, the measurements of the leg-bones of an ordinary Dinornis maximus being as follows: Femur, 18 inches; tibia, 32 inches; tarsus, 19 inches, a total of 5 feet 9 inches. The egg measures 10% by 6% inches. There is plenty of literature, and very interesting literature, about the Moas, but, unfortunately, the best of it is not always accessible, being contained in the "New Zealand Journal of Science" and the " Transactions of the New Zealand Institute." The volume of " Transactions" for 1893, being Vol. XXVI, con¬ tains a very full list of articles relating to the Moas, compiled by Mr. A. Hamilton; it will be found to commence on page 229. There is a good article on Moa in Newton's "Dictionary of Birds," a hook that should he in every library.